King James VII And The Glorious Revolution

Introduction

In the year 1688 a revolution happened in Britain. The Catholic king James VII was overthrown and the Protestants William, Prince of Orange and his wife Mary took the throne. This revolution is usually called the Glorious Revolution because it was seen as an unrevolutionary, bloodless coup. The glory of the revolution is often associated with elements of British society like the reform of the Church, the beginning of modern British parliamentary democracy, the emergence of Britain as a Great Power and the start of limited monarchy. In this traditional view, James was not overthrown, but was regarded as having abdicated with the revolutionaries simply seeking to vindicate ancient rights and liberties, rather than introduce new
Steve Pincus, in his 2009 book on the Glorious Revolution characterizes James’s policies as modernizing.1 Alasdair Raffe argues in his article that James’s religious policies initiated a multiconfessional experiment, a period of largely unimpeded competition between the multiple religious groups that lasted until the revolution. According to Raffe not only Catholics, but also Presbyterians benefited from this experiment.2

James VII was a Catholic, so he wished to promote the Catholic minority in his kingdoms. Since the Restoration in 1660, the Church of Scotland had been Episcopalian. The Church was unpopular in Scotland and depended on royal support. After his accession in 1685, James inflicted serious damage on the Church. Prior to the meeting of parliament in 1686, James deprived the Episcopalian opponents of Catholic promotion of their bishoprics. The king’s treatment of the bishops continued patterns of earlier anticlerical policy.3 James also made it clear that he wished for Catholics to have freedom to practice their religion. He was determined to be able to employ them in military and civil offices. James was aiming for more than just toleration, he intended to establish Catholics as equal to